


And I Walked Hand in Hand with the Devil

by bookwormally



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Corpses, Curses, Gen, Humanstuck, M/M, Sexual Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 18:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3083471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwormally/pseuds/bookwormally
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat is losing his mind. His dreams are full of skeleton forests and ruined castles and he keeps going to visit anyway. He'll find a way out, one way or another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Walked Hand in Hand with the Devil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [affectionateTea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/affectionateTea/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Fill: Team Equius<>Nepeta, T](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/90512) by bhelryss. 



“I think I’m losing my goddamn mind.”

That’s a pretty good sign that Karkat is about to get ranting. Jade lets him. He’s been wound tight all day and she’s busy cleaning her rifle. She’s not going to get distracted and ruin something because Karkat has yet another thing to bitch about. She rubs the soft cloth over the barrel and half listens to him get started.

Karkat is sitting across from her, or was until he stood up to pace. “Like I’m pretty sure I’m losing my fucking mind and not just out of frustration and the rampant stupidity of the rest of fucking humanity this time. I’m fucking around with cursed shit and I’m addicted and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to stop until I’m fucking dead.”

Jade sets the barrel down and looks up at him. “Well that’s pretty stupid of you, Karkat. Quit messing with the cursed shit.”

“If it was that fucking easy I would!” He throws his arms up in the air before crossing them and huffing, “You wouldn’t understand Miss ‘I fuck myself with test tubes.’”

She rolls her eyes and picks up another piece for cleaning. She almost throws it at him, but the gun is too valuable to dent on Karkat’s thick skull. “At least test tubes know how to make me orgasm. They’re already doing better than you, Mr. ‘I fumble around and cry.’”

Karkat flips her off, very red in the face, and drops back into his seat. “You’re a bitch.”

“And you’re an asshole. What’s this curse thing?”

He sighs and ruffles his hair in irritation. “So you know of Lowaa right? You’ve not got your nose buried so deep in your stupid lab to be unaware of that right?”

She flicks him in the nose with the cloth.

“Right, yeah. So I’ve cut through it a few times and I met this Eridan guy who lives there.”

Jade stops and just looks at him. “And what naughty things have you been up to in the skeleton forests with him?”

Karkat goes red. “Holy shit, shut the fuck up! I haven’t done shit with him and you’re disgusting for even asking!” She rolls her eyes. “Any fucking way, yeah I met this guy and he told me the place is cursed and I’m pretty sure he’s right. I’m going to end up dead if I keep going there, but he’s such a miserable lonely bastard. I’d be the biggest pile of shit if I just stopped going without telling him I couldn’t do it anymore.”

She sets the pieces down and gives him her full attention. Time to cut Karkat’s altruistic bullshit in the bulb before he got himself cursed for eternity. Lonely undead bastard or no, Jade is not going to lose one of her best friends. “Well then you go see him one more time and tell him you value being alive and then you never go back again. Kiss, Karkat.” He stares at her in confusion. Jade sticks her fingers in his face. “Keep it simple stupid!”

He huffs. “But I could be full of shit. Maybe there is no curse and I’m just being a wankstain because his place creeps me the fuck out.” Karkat tugs a piece of his hair then shifts his seat. Is he ever capable of keeping still? “I don’t want to fuck him over just because I’m a coward.”

Jade rolls her eyes heavenward. Any listening deities please save her from the stupidity of her friend. “You’re not being a coward. Creepy shit like curses are completely real. Save your own ass for once and stop being an idiot, Karkat. You have non creepy cursed friends who will be very pissed off if you disappear over a skeleton dick.” She starts to reassemble her rifle piece by piece.

The click of the connecting pieces sounds like a threat to Eridan and Karkat sinks further into his seat. “You don’t fucking understand.”

A rather pokey looking piece is jabbed at him. “You’re being a fuckass. One more time, tell him you like it here and alive, and then you come back and let me kick your ass for being such a pain.” Jade clicks another piece into place.

Karkat groans, but doesn’t argue. “You can’t kick my ass. I will totally kick your ass, you bossy bitch.”

She kicks him under the table which sets off a new argument and curses are forgotten.

*

Karkat plops down on one of the few stable sections of the ruined garden wall. Eridan deems it too dirty to sit on and stays standing, arms folded behind him. The sun is still high and the garden mostly free of shadows thanks to lacking all greenery now. Karkat kicks his feet against the wall lightly until he’s sure it won’t collapse under his ass. For once he’s quiet.

Eridan doesn’t seem to mind. He puts a gloved hand on the wall, pushing some of the broken pieces off to scatter among the long dead grass. The sun isn’t close to setting yet. Karkat doesn’t stay after dark. He’ll have to leave soon enough to make it home again. He needs to do what Jade said and tell Eridan that he can’t do this anymore. The skeleton trees and bony hands reaching for him haunt his dreams.

He glances up at the long dead king. Eridan has such sharp features, strong chin and cheekbones and the perfect curve to his nose. His hair still has a wave to it like it was just styled that morning. Karkat realizes he’s lingering over Eridan’s eyelashes and forces his gaze back out to the scenery.

Jade was right, dammit. As much as Karkat hates to admit it, he’s alive and he can’t keep coming to a dead kingdom just because its occupant is handsome and lonely. He scowls. Do it Vantas, before you’ve got a skeleton dick.

“It used to be so beautiful.” Eridan’s voice breaks the silence first. It’s soft and fits the mood perfectly. Karkat glances at him and then back to the view. He’ll say his piece in a second. “The gardens were a bit of flash for the visitors who didn’t understand the beauty of a rifle or a soaring spire. They were not my favorite yet now that they’re gone I keep trying to remember what they looked like in midsummer.”

Karkat hums and looks at the ground. It’s all dead now. Brown and yellow and dry as bone and Karkat does not want to live forever among the dead. Eridan keeps talking. “The buildings are easier to rebuild in my memory. The soaring spires were my favorite. I could come so much closer to the stairs. But again I also wanted to explore the deepest sea. We used to reach so far.”

“Reaching is what fucked you over.” Karkat doesn’t look at him as he says it. Eridan stops and looks at him without expression. “But hey you’re not dead. Count that as a fucking blessing I guess.”

Eridan snorts. “Sure Kar. I’m alive if you use the word nice and loose. I’m alive in a dead wasteland a my own making. Alive with no one else to even talk to.”

Karkat rolls his eyes. “What the fuck am I? Your reflection? God I hope not. I don’t think I could ever look at myself again with all the douche on it.”

“That hurts, Kar. You know how much I value my gorgeous face. I put a lot a effort in to keep it looking this good.”

Yeah, he fucking knows. He doesn’t want to put the same work in to hide the fact that he's undead too when the curse gets him. “Yeah, whatever. Shove it up your ass.”

Eridan comes around and sits next to him carefully. “I suppose I can talk to you, but you’re not always here. You come for a few hours and then you’re gone again. Makes the silence cut all the deeper. This place hasn’t been so alive since your shouty ass stumbled in.”

And there it is, the tiny little thing that keeps him coming back time after time despite the nasty cursed land creeping him the fuck out. Eridan is lonely. Eridan has no one here. Eridan has nothing but a dead land and his own thoughts. It fills Karkat with guilt and sympathy. So he comes back to talk and see the ruined castle and ignores the creeping tension that fills him every time Eridan falls into shadow.

Karkat clears his throat. “Well, thanks I guess? Most people would call me a fucking asshole but whatever lets you finger yourself comfortably.” With creepy bone fingers and goddammit this is ridiculous. He crosses his arms. “But I’m not like you so it’s not like I can stay here forever.”

Eridan doesn’t reply, just stares at him. Karkat keeps facing forward. If he looks at him and sees loneliness or sadness in his eyes he’ll take it back. “I mean fuck whatever it’s cool to talk to you, but I’m still alive and I got shit to do and creeping around a dead ass kingdom isn’t exactly making me look any saner. My friends think I’ve lost my own mind and I’m starting to think so too! I’m going out of my way to spend time in a cursed kingdom and ruined castle because I think the undead king is lonely and _needs_ me or some shit. That’s pretty fucking insane if I’m not imagining it all!”

“If you think you’re so crazy leave and never come back. I don’t need your _pity_.” Eridan spits the last word. He stands again, cloak doing that dramatic sweeping thing that’s meant to be incredibly dismissive. It makes Karkat want to punch him.

“It’s not pity you fucking idiot! It’s called I fucking care too fucking much about someone who is already doomed and that means I’m fucked up the ass!”

The king arches an eyebrow. “Are you drunk?”

Karkat flips him off. “I’m trying to have a serious discussion about my fucking sanity here and you want to know if I’ve been drinking. Fuck you! Go swirl your peacock cape at someone else if you don’t want to listen.”

Eridan’s lips twitch. “Fine. What the hell are you tryin’ to say Kar?”

He takes a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can keep coming back here. It’s creepy and weird and I think if I try to come back again my friends are going to throw me into a nice padded cell. I’m having crazy fucking nightmares that center around this place. And I still come back because it means coming to see you which is absolutely batshit insane, but I can’t stop.”

Stone scrapes as Eridan brushes a few more pieces off into the dead grass. Karkat has been staring down at it so long that he thinks there might actually be small new green sprouts coming up. That’s impossible though. The cape flaps over the wall as he sits next to him. His arms are still crossed tightly across his chest, but log pale fingers rest on the wall next to his leg like an invitation.

“I could try and help you not to fear this place anymore? I mean it’s all dead but it’s not haunted by anything but me. Like you said I flap my peacock cape and that’s all the threatening I do.” Eridan’s voice is soft, a little jesting and a little unsure. “Stay tonight and you’ll not have any more nightmares.”

Karkat looks up at him with a frown. “Stay tonight in your creepy ass castle? I’ll freeze my dick off.”

Eridan laughs. “There are some blankets and things yet that aren’t eaten through.” He ducks his head awkwardly. “I don’t want you to be scared a me in the dark if that’s what’s bothering you.”

There are stories about the great and terrifying King Ampora, the man who drug his kingdom into ruin for his own glory. The man next to him doesn’t seem to measure up to them at all. The man next to him is alone and awkward and snobby and just unbelievably selfish. Karkat shouldn’t have anything but scorn for him.

He uncrosses his arms and puts a warm hand over Eridan’s chilly one. “Fuck it, fine. Show me these fucking blankets without holes and I’ll stay one fucking night. You better not try and scare the shit out of me or I’ll beat your bony ass back to death.”

Eridan’s smile makes his traitorous heart thump.

The King climbs to his feet and their hands pull apart as he moves to go inside. Eridan stops in the doorway and looks back at him. There’s enough shadow that half his hair is gone and part of his skull is there. Karkat hesitates.

He extends his hand. “I’m not something to fear, Kar.”

Karkat takes a deep breath and moves forward to take his hand. “You’re the least threatening person ever.”

Eridan’s smile turns into a grinning skull as he tugs him into the dark of the ruined castle. The sun is setting, painting the broken walls in red and gold.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays! I hope this captured the feel of the original for you. :D


End file.
